need some HVAC help here

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by melbo, Jan 28, 2007.


  1. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    My week link is comfortable no power heating.

    I have a wood stove set aside in the shop to install if I had to. I have a large masonry fireplace with massive blowers as well.

    But, as in the picture below, I have an open loft/ cathedral ceiling home and a central radient heat source will keep the downstairs bedrooms cold and the upstairs (my room) hot hot hot. I need the main HVAC blower to pipe the heat into each room

    Even on my heat pump, the upstairs will read as much as 15 degrees hotter than the downstairs. I'd like to install some type of duct from the exposed ridge beam with a fan to pull hot air and dump it back down to the floor level.

    I know the house should have had an upstairs cold air return but it's not cosmetically feasible to add that in to the return now. I'm thinking a chase with the duct inside hooked to a fan.

    This possible?

    Not my house but really similiar first floor layout.
    loft.
     
  2. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Should be easy if you are willing to box in one of the open rafters.
     
  3. andrew414

    andrew414 Howdy.

    If it were my ceiling, I'd build a pretty wood duct and finish with smaller dimensions to shadow rafter #2 for circulation from the top of the air mass. Stain to match woodwork. If you're in a picky code area, you'd probably have to build it out of sheetmetal or gyp board and then box it in with wood.

    Speaking of wood heating, and on the con side of this rafter plenum, if you were to have a "unplanned" house fire, this circ. duct would pump all the smoke from the top down. A fan shutdown relay slaved of of smoke detection would push this idea back into the " very safe" category.

    How low does the heat striate? Does it reach the floor of the loft? If this is the case, you could cut in a distant blower to circulate air down directly through the upper floor into the lower space. This would start to bypass, and cool the upper level down as well. This would be better from a fire safety standpoint.

    The ceiling fan also looks like it could move some cool air up to mix with the heat. The cold air, being more dense, balloons up into the center air mass. This would displace hot air, and eventually mix down along the perimeter walls... replacing cold draft with warm draft. Obviously though, I'm sure you've done and it wasn't sufficient.

    andrew
     
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